Cristiano came out from the Champions League final with a slight injury problem, so he was unsurprisingly rested in Portugal's friendly against fellow World Cup competitors Greece on Saturday. But he wasn't the only person rested, and Paulo Bento took the opportunity to change his formation completely and experiment with something new. It resulted in a very, very dull 0-0 draw.
Portugal vs. Greece: Final score 0-0, and that was bad
What happens when Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t play for Portugal? Literally nothing.
Alex Livesey
Not only was Ronaldo out, Raul Meireles and Joao Moutinho were out too. This led to Bento playing a 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders, Miguel Veloso and William Carvalho. The result was a very sturdy defense and a distinct lack of creativity, which is Greece's style of play all the time.
Portugal had more possession and more shots, but Greece didn’t look threatened often. As the game wore on, it became obvious that neither team was going to do anything of consequence while first choice players were particpating in the match, and everyone was quite thankful when the final whistle blew.
Today we learned: Absolutely nothing. We already knew that Greece were dull and Portugal were bad without Ronaldo and Moutinho.
Portugal: Eduardo (Beto 46’), A. Almeida, Costa, Alves, Pereira, Varela (Vieirinha 70’), Veloso, Carvalho (Neto 89’), Nani (Rafa 83’), Eder (Amorim 65’), Postiga (H. Almeida 46’)
Greece: Karnezis, Holebas, Sokratis (Moras 41’), Manolas (Vyntra 71’), Torosidis, Maniatis, Tziolis (Karagounis 46’), Katsouranis, Samaras (Christodoulopoulos 86’), Mitroglou (Gekas 63’), Salpingidis (Fetfatzidis 63’)
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